“Do you want something, aunty?” Cadence asked, turning her head to see Celestia, who was sitting next to the kitchen table.
“Hmm? Sorry, what?” Celestia asked in an absentminded tone. Turning her attention from the kitchen door where she had been looking at Arceus presented Luna to some of the members of his family.
“I asked you if you want something to eat.” Cadence explained with the same patient and caring tone as the one she had used when asking her for the first time.
“Well…” Celestia thought about her answer for a second. She had already eaten a light breakfast in the castle, and lunch on the train, meaning that she wasn’t hungry.
“Just some tea please.” Celestia answered while turning her attention back to the kitchen door, where she saw Arceus introduce Luna to Giratina.
“Just tea?” Cadence asked, confused that her aunty didn’t ask for something more, like cake.
“Yes, just tea. Luna, Arceus and I ate lunch during our train ride here. I don’t know about him but I’m not hungry.” Celestia answered, still looking to the outside of the kitchen, where she managed to notice something on Luna’s and Giratina’s face. She wasn’t sure what it was, but for her, it looked like the two were flustered.
“Very well,” Cadence said as she poured water in a kettle. “What about you miss Golden Feather?” She asked, turning her attention towards Golden Feather/Faust.
“Well, if it’s not much of a problem, a coffee and some cookies will do fine princess.” Golden Feather/Faust answered. She was acting, or well, at least trying to act like she was uncomfortable with Cadence offering and preparing food for her. After all, Golden Feather was the identity of a normal, although a little famous author, so if Faust wanted to keep that appearance, she needed to act like said pony will do when interacting with the princess.
“It's not a problem at all dear.” Cadence said as she moved to open a cabinet to her side, where Twilight kept the dishes.
Cadence used her magic to take what she thought was the top dish out of the cabinet. However, she didn’t realise that the dish she had taken wasn’t the one on top of the pile, as there was another, smaller one. The small dish slipped and fell on the floor, making loud noise as it did so. This resulted in Cadence turning in the direction of Shining Armour, who was carrying a sleeping Flurry Heart in his frontal legs.
Cadence and Shining stared at their daughter, hoping that the noise didn’t wake her up, and for their fortune, it didn’t, Flurry kept sleeping as if nothing had happened. Both let out a sigh of relief, before Cadence returned to prepare the drinks and Shining tried to make small talk with Golden Feather.
“It seems you two are getting better at handling Flurry,” Celestia remarked with a cheeky grin and joking tone while Cadance poured her some tea.
“You could say that, then again, anything is an improvement compared to our first day with her.” Cadence answered while giving Golden Feather/Faust her mug of coffee and cookies.
“Though she can still be a little inconvenient for others.” Shining added while Cadence sat between him and Celestia.
“For example, she woke up at 4am today and spent a few hours wanting to play. We can keep up with her because we're used to it, but Spike and Twilight don’t have our experience.” Cadence added while taking Flurry in her forelegs and lightly rocking her.
“So that’s why Twilight and Spike looked so tired when we arrived” Celestia reasoned, finally understanding why Spike didn’t recognise her or Luna, or why Twilight had such a messy appearance.
“Yes, even when Spike was struggling to remain awake, Flurry kept trying to make him fly after her.” Shining added, remembering how Flurry had teleported Spike out of his bed multiple times.
“I apologise for taking so long,” Arceus said while finding a seat next to Celestia, finally being able to join the group. “So what did I miss?” He asked while pouring himself a cup of tea.
Before anyone could answer, Flurry slowly began to wake up, letting out a yawn before making her best efforts to stretch while in her mother’s embrace. Cadence tried rocking her back to sleep, but her daughter had enough of that. Flurry was now ready to play around again until the next nap time, or whenever she felt hungry, whatever happened first.
“Good morning little one,” Arceus said, still using his calm tone before taking a sip of his tea.
Flurry’s attention was immediately directed to Arceus, not surprising considering how he had managed to attract the attention of every creature he had come across. She quickly left her mother's forelegs, flying past ‘Aunty Celestia’ before flying around Arceus, looking at him with interest.
Arceus just chuckled, while looking at her. “She seems to be quite curious and energetic.” He commented while Flurry tried to interact with his right hoof, baffled as to why hers and later her entire body could go past through it as if it wasn’t there.
“You could say that,” Shining answered in a somewhat sarcastic tone, knowing full well how hard it could be to keep up with his daughter.
“She does seem to enjoy flying quite a lot,” Arceus added, finding it weird that her first instinct had been to fly rather than just crawl or walk towards him.
“Yeah, despite her age she has gotten quite good at flying; and to be honest, that's the main source of problems taking care of her, unlike most fillies her age, she can easily reach places a baby isn’t supposed to be in.” Shining answered, remembering that little incident where Flurry had flown to the top of the castle in the crystal empire, and the scrabble to find her that took place while she was happily enjoying the view.
“Yes, fortunately flying also gets her quite tired, so she will probably be back to sleep soon.” Cadence added, trying to not get distracted with her daughter.
“Shining, do you think you can take Flurry to play in our room?” Cadence asked, turning to see her husband, who was already digging in their baby bag looking for Whammy so that Flurry could play with it.
“On it,” Shining answered before moving to Arceus, where Flurry was still looking at him with curiosity. “Look who it is Flurry! It’s Whammy! She wants to play with you!” Shining exclaimed with a childish tone while levitating the snail plushie in his magic, quickly gaining the attention of his daughter.
Upon seeing her favourite toy, Flurry lost most of her interest in Arceus, taking a last look at him before launching herself towards Whammy. Shining tried to move the plushie around using his magic, but before he could, Whammy was already being hugged and chewed by Flurry; much to the annoyance of both Cadence and Shining.
Arceus simply chuckled at the display, as it reminded him of the difficulties he faced while taking care of her kids, and how, later on, he had to help them when they decided to have kids of their own. Arceus' chuckle got Flurry’s attention back, as she flew back at him and started to happily show Whammy to Arceus.
“She’s quite the cute little thing,” Arceus said as Flurry continued to show Whammy to him. The compliment was directed towards both Flurry and her parents; though Flurry herself didn’t catch that, believing it was directed towards Whammy, still, she was happy to know that the strange creature found her plushie cute.
“Flurry, can you please come with daddy?” Shining asked as Flurry sat on Arceus's back; Flurry didn’t listen to him, finding Arceus’s back as the perfect place to sit and play due to its softness.
“Do you want some help?” Arceus asked before turning to see Flurry, or as well as his neck allowed him to do so. “Hi Flurry! Would you like to fly with Whammy for a bit?”
Just like with her dad, Flurry ignored Arceus, prefering to simply continue playing on his back. “That’s not going to work, she doesn’t find being levitated fun anymore.” Shining exclaimed to Arceus while the 2 were looking at Flurry.
“That isn’t exactly what I meant.” Arceus answered with a childish tone, his body then emitted a faint golden light, mixed with an even more tenuous azure-blue and pink colour light.
The light got the attention of Flurry, distracting her from her plushie, not noticing that Whammy itself was starting to emit the same light too. After a second Arceus stopped emitting the light, leaving Flurry briefly confused before she turned her attention back to Whammy, only to discover that her plush was flying in place, using some sort of ghosty wings to do so.
Flurry immediately noticed that something was off about Whammy and her levitation, as even though she was still a baby, she didn’t feel any sort of familiar magic presence. Flurry turned to look at Cadence and Shining for any sort of guidance, but her dad was confused while her mom was busy looking at Arceus with suspicion; she then turn to see aunty Celestia, who gave her an encouraging look, knowing that whatever Arceus had done wasn’t dangerous.
Seeing Celestia’s encouragement, Flurry turned her attention back to her plushie and touched it. A second later Whammy began to flap its phantasmagoric wings, leaving Arceus’ back and hovering over him. Flurry kept her eyes on her now flying plushie, looking at it with confusion.
“Say Flurry,” Arceus finally said, getting the attention of the confused pony-toddler. “I think Whammy wants to play with you. Why don’t you follow her?”
Flurry then turned her attention back to her plushie, before taking flight too, slowly moving upwards until she was in front of Whammy. Whammy then began to perform a few basic tricks while remaining in place, like a barrel roll, a knife fight, a loop among others; despite her confusion Flurry copied the tricks, having some difficulty with some while showing that she had performed others before.
“She’ll definitely have a fun time,” Arceus commented while finally sitting at the table, between Celestia and Golden Feather (Faust). At the same time, Whammy and Flurry began flying around the room at a relatively low speed, while performing some of the tricks to make the flying more interesting, with Flurry laughing as they did so.
“Thank you Arceus, but we would prefer for our daughter to play with magic of our own world,” Cadence said in quite the harsh tone, making her way close to the table and standing next to it.
“My apologies Cadence, I should have asked if you were ok with it.” Arceus answered in an akward tone; before turning his attention to Whammy and Flurry, who were still flying around them.
“Let me remove the effect.” Arceus’ body then began to shine, but before he could return Whammy to her wingless state, he was interrupted by Shining.
“Eh, Arceus, before you ‘removed the effect’, as you said. What exactly did you do?” Shining asked; he might not be such a scientifically or magically curious individual as his little sister, but he was still fascinated by Arceus’ trick.
“Oh, well. It’s quite simple really,” Arceus answered, the golden light disappearing in his body. “I infused Flurry’s plushie with a little of raw flying, and an even smaller bit of psychic type energy.”
“The quote on quote, magic, in Arceus’ world is divided by different types. ThinK of it like how a unicorn's magic is different to that of an earth pony’s or pegasus’.” Celestia chimed in the explanation, trying to reduce the number of further questions.
Arceus simply nodded, happy to see that Celestia had paid attention to all the explanations he had given her in the last 24 or so hours. “It’s a little trick I learned while my sons and daughters grew up. Flying toys help develop their finer flying skills, just like how certains toys help them with walking. However, while telekinesis works for those without wings who can fly; it’s better for those with wings to observe and learn from a toy that also has wings.” Arceus explained.
“Basically, monkey see, monkey do.” Shining said, simplifying Arceus’ explanation.
“Pretty much so,” Arceus answered with a shrug.
“That does make sense,” Shining answered while scratching his chin. “It would explain why Flurry gets distracted whenever she sees a pegasus fly, she’s trying to learn from them.”
“Well, considering all the times my son, Dialga, had to follow his daughter around forests because she kept flying after pokemons with elytras or other bug-like wings; I think it is fair to say that you are correct.” Arceus added, remembering a few of Dialga’s own anecdotes regarding young Celebi’s forest adventures.
Arceus then caught a glance at Cadence and cleared his throat, “do you still want me to remove the effect?”
“Could you teach me how to do it?” Shining asked, after taking another look at his daughter and seeing how much fun she was having.
“You would probably have better luck asking Twilight for a similar spell,” Celestia said from across the table after taking a sip of her tea.
“Indeed,” Arceus said with anod. “Besides I don’t think the magic of this world or the energies of mine can interact; and to be honest, I’m on my vacation so I don’t really feel like testing it.” He added with an unapologetic tone, followed by an exaggerated yawn that got a chuckle out of Celestia and Golden Feather/Faust.
“But being serious now, the effect should go away in a few hours, or when Flurry falls asleep, whatever happens first; but if you want, I can remove it now.” Arceus said after returning to his more calm tone.
“You said it was safe, right?” Cadence asked, as she had realised that Flurry was having too much fun to cut it out.
“I can assure you that there was never a problem when my sons, daughters and grandkids played with any object under that effect. Though, because we are indoors, there’s a possibility of Flurry crashing against a wall, so it would be wise for one of you to keep an eye on her.” Arceus answered, knowing full well that the last part of his warning wasn’t needed as he had noticed that since Flurry took flight, the eyes of both of her parents were almost always on her.
“I suppose she can keep playing with Whammy,” Cadence answered with a sigh. “Shining, could you take Flurry to the main hall and keep an eye on her?”
Shining nodded before leaving his seat and opening the door, and turning to see his daughter. “Flurry! Whammy! Why don’t you two come to fly in the hall?” He asked, just for two pinkish blurs to pass right next to him.
“Well, I will keep an eye on them while you talk with Arceus,” Shining added with a cheeky tone.
Cadence just looked at Shining with a bit of shock and disapproval. “How did you know!?”
“Caydy, I’m your husband, I can tell when there’s something bothering you.” Shining answered, before closing the door behind him; and right after that, he asked, “Hey Flurry, who’s your new friend?”
“So, what do you want to talk about Cadence?” Arceus asked, turning his attention back to the smaller alicorn in the room.
Cadence, who had been staring at the door with a light blush caused by Shining’s use of THAT nickname, turned her attention to Arceus, and after a deep bread she sat down at the table right in front of the pokemon. “Is less of a chat and more a concern of mine. I suppose aunty Celestia told you what I’m the princess of, right?”
“Yep,” Arceus answered. “You are, as Celestia called it, ‘the princess of love’”.
“Well, despite how cheesy that title is, I still take my role as such very seriously.” Cadence said with quite the solemn tone. “And there’s something that has been bothering me since I met you regarding that. It is quite obvious that you care for your own children, however, I’m a bit concerned that I haven’t seen any of their mothers.”
The alpha pokemon just stared at Cadence for a second; seeing as Arceus didn’t come up with an answer the aforementioned princess of love continued. “I can accept poligami to a certain degree, but having over 30 partners is over the top; and seeing as you didn’t bring any of them with you, it is fair to say that you don’t have a healthy relationship with any of them.”
Arceus let out a deep sight while Cadence continued talking, turning to Celestia for some sort of advice or help. Fortunately for Arceus, Celestia had noticed the awkwardness Cadence’s light tirade had created, as even Golden Feather/ Faust wes trying to ignore what was being said by looking around the kitchen.
“I think I forgot to tell you that Cadence can be a bit overreaching at times,” Celestia commented, interumping Cadence.
“Aunty!” Cadence exclaimed with indignation while turning to see Celestia.
“Though, Cadence is still right about one thing, you never explained to me where your offspring came from, you just said it was ‘complicated’.” Celestia added, she might be willing to interrupt the awkwardness but she still wanted answers.
Arceus turned to see Celestia, who winked at him. “Well, I did promise you to explain ‘where my family came from’.” He answered, remembering how when the 2 were making their way to the castle for the first time, where Celestia made a few questions regarding the ‘mothers’ of his sons and daughters.
Arceus began to pour himself a glass of water using his telekinesis. “Before I begin, please keep in mind that this might be a bit confusing for you, I will try to keep it simple and explain everything as I go along.” He then took a few sips of the water before starting his explanation.
“The best way I can put it is that my sons and daughters weren’t made in what you could call ‘the usual way’, but rather, they were conceived by giving them a part of my powers.” Arceus paused for a second to look at Cadence’s and Celestia’s facial expressions, noticing a bit of shock and interest; Golden Feather/Faust didn’t react, as she was more than familiar with the story.
“You see, a long time ago I was incredibly powerful, yet I was also quite lonely, and I also wanted a family, particularly sons and daughters; so I began to make them, using parts of my powers so that they could exist.”
Arceus then turned to see Cadence. “Think of it like you giving away most of your pegasie magic so that Flurry could exist; you can still fly, as you haven’t given away your wings, but such things as your control over the weather have been greatly diminished.” Upon hearing that Cadence slowly turned to see her wings, knowing that she would be more than willing to go so far as to lose her wings for Flurry to be in her life.
Arceus then continued with his explanation. “The first ones to be born were Mew, Dialga, Palkia and Giratina, yes they are quadruplets despite how different they look!” Arceus exclaimed, a bit of the happiest he felt watching the birth of his first daughter and his first three sons coming back with the memory.
After a second of Arceus then cleared his throat. “The rest is, well, history; I relinquished parts of my power so that my sons and daughters could live, and soon after, they did the same. My granddaughter, Celebi, for example, was born when Dialga relinquished some of his own power…”
“I feel like I've been talking too much.” Arceus added, with a joking tone, rather than the most serious he had used throughout most of his explanation and that had created a rather tense ambience in the kitchen.
“Not as much as some nobles I know,” Celestia chained in, using a mocking tone, trying to give the conversation a bit of a comedic tone, though she still had another question on her mind. “What about those you have adopted into your family?”
“Oh well, there’s a myriad of reasons as to why we decided to welcome them into our family.” Arceus explained before taking another sip of water. “They either helped protect other pokemons, or came across some power they used for good, or they helped us during a crisis, one of them literally fell from space…” Arceus tone and expression then changed to a more sombre one. “Although, some have a darker past, and well, we wanted to give them a home so that they didn’t feel like outcasts anymore”.
Cadence sight, lowering her head. “Arceus, I have to offer you my apologies, I shouldn't have made such accusations.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it, you're not the first one to come to such conclusions,” Arceus answered in a nonchalant tone
Cadence however didn’t take Arceus’ words well, as she figured that Arceus was probably sick of having to answer the same question; as Cadence herself would definitely be more than annoyed if everywhere she went someone asked if Flurry was really her daughter.
Fortunately, before Cadence could bury herself in self reprimands, Arceus (with a bit of help from the Mind Plate), took notice of Cadence’s change in mood. “If anything I would have been concerned if you didn’t come to that conclusion.” Arceus added, trying to get Cadence’s attention back.
“If someone showed up to me, with a big group of creatures who he/she claims are her/his family despite few of them looking in any way related to whoever this individual is; I would be a bit suspicious to say the least.”
Cadence seemed to cheer up a bit with what Arceus said, glad to know that even Arceus himself agreed that he and his family were a bit of an eyebrow raiser.
“There’s still something I don’t understand; if you wanted a family so badly, why didn’t you find a partner?” Celestias asked with a bit of hesitation, having to take a sip of water afterwards as she felt her mouth dry for some odd reason.
“Well, I have tried, believe me I did; but, I could never find the right one for me,” Arceus explained, reminiscing of feminas that had caught his eye over the years.
“For example, before my family was born I was quite the traveller, and during that time I met a few that were interested in me,” Arceus added. “There was this girl called Athena, we flirted for a bit, but her family was a bit… dreadful, especially her father, and even though it was rare, she did imitate his behaviour a few times, so I ended up cutting ties with her. There was also Isis, she was quite smart, but that was also her weakness, I was told she poisoned her father Ra just so that he could give her a bit of knowledge that was forbidden, so I ended rejecting any advance she made just as a precaution”.
“Well, at least you were smart, and avoided any sort of toxic relationship,” Cadence said, quite disgusted by what Arceus had told her.
“Indeed; to be honest I was more interested in one of my travelling companions.
“You see, during my travels I came across others that were also travelling through other worlds and we stuck together for a while. There were 4 sisters in our group, triplets and a younger one; I was attracted to one of the triplets called Din, though it was more of a silly crush that never got anywhere, as I said we were mostly a bunch of strangers turned friends travelling together.” Arceus stopped remembering the shenanigans of those early days.
“Could you tell us more about your travelling group?” Faust/Golden Feather asked, just like Arceus, she wanted to reminisce about those times, even if just a little while.
Arceus just nodded at her. “Well, there was this guy who called himself The King of All Cosmos.” Arceus said in a joking tone and pose, to accompany the ridiculous title. “He was the oddball of the group, though, he was the only one with a family of his own; a wife, who was smarter than him and a baby boy who was probably too young to remember anything of our travels.”
Faust/Golden Feather giggled, “something tells me he was the king troubles.” She said, remembering the sort of silly things the king would do, and all the small problems he got the group into. It was a shame that they couldn't share their stories without the risk of blowing Faust’s identity, though she made a mental note to talk about it later with Arceus in private.
“Anyway, shortly after Dialga, Palkia, Giratina and Mew were born; I mentioned my travels and they… I was going to say asked, but it was more like begging me to take them on a tour. Fortunately I was able to reunite with my travel group, but after my children were born my taste had changed.” Arceus continued, remembering how odd it was for him to return to the group only after a short while and realising how he had changed. “By then, I didn’t find Din that attractive, I was more captivated by Nayru, another one of the triplets and Hylia, the youngues of the 4 sisters, yet arguably the most mature; but just as before, it was just a light crush, not really that important.”
“What about your world Arceus?” Cadence asked.”Did you ever have a crush on someone native to your world?”
“Well, I did find a few females from my world attractive throughout the years.” Arceus answered, tapping his chin. “There was this, Rapidash, a Milotic, a Kangaskan, a Lopunny, a Nidoqueen. There were also these three girls, called Cynthia, Phoebe and Nessa; but again these were just interests I had over the years, nothing serious.” Arceus added, a bit distracted and with a nonchalant tone.
As Arceus stopped talking about his previous crushes and love interest, Celestia let out a sight she didn’t know she was holding; there was something about hearing that Arceus had a few previous love interests over the years, though she didn’t understand why. Fortunately for her, neither Arceus or Cadence seem to notice; though Celestia wasn’t so sure if Golden Feather / Faust did, as she seemed to be looking at Celestia with interest.
Then a visibly excited Twilight entered the kitchen. “...I might be able to revisit that project for a forest of Trees of Harmony; I just need the help of Starswirl to make the seed and convince her to help grow the trees. It would be like giving her a sibling… or maybe we should help her roots extend and flourish? A forest made of one single tree like that clonal colony of quaking aspen… Nope, this whole idea is to not depend on a single tree, or well, organism of harmony, it would be better if the forest was made of individual trees rather than just being a collective.” Twilight rambled, using her telekinesis to surround herself with papers and notes; not acknowledging anyone’s presence and most likely, not even being aware where she was.
“Now, the tree chose my students as students to serve as bearers of the elements when the girls and I were trapped, so finding bearers for a new posible tree wouldn't be that hard… then again, if a new tree were to be planted it should be in Canterlot, is the capital and one of the most strategic points in Equestria after all; maybe the princesses can wield those elements like they did with the originals… maybe even the pillars can wield a new set of elements!” Twilight continued, walking passing around the kitchen, scribbling down her ideas as they came.
Arceus just watched with amusement at Twilight’s shenanigans. “So, Twilight, I assume that my daughter has taught you quite a lot about your home, right?”
“Oh, you have no idea!” Twilight exclaimed, sitting in the same chair her brother had been using not long ago. “I knew there was some sort of connection between my castle and the Tree of Harmony, but I never suspected it would be physical! Not only that, but from what Diancie told me, the tree seems to be smarter than what I thought; Diancie might be able to convince her to talk to me!”
“And let me guess,” Cadence interrupted in a joking tone. “Diance asked you to let her try alone, because you going all Twily-nanas wasn’t helping with convincing the tree.”
Twilight blushed a little, “...maybe.” Was the only thing she said, flustered, that her sister-in-law had used that expression in front of not only Celestia, but Arceus and Golden Feather; even though it was unlikely that any of them knew what it meant.
Suddenly, and with a flash of light, a very odd and lanky figure appeared above the table and right in front of Twilight.
“Hi Twilight!” Discord exclaimed, “oh and Cadence!” He added, in a nervous tone after noticing the pink princess.
“Discord, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked, staring at the draconicus and crossing her forelegs.
“What!? Since when I can’t come and-” Discord quickly answered, quickly scanning the room, looking for something to say, and soon he found it, “and hello Celestia!” He added, with haste, turning in the direction of the princess, waving at her.
“Hi Discord,” Celestia said, waving back, curious to see what shenanigans will unfold.
“Discord,” Cadence called out with a calm yet stern tone, trying to get him to turn and see her.
He ignored her, finally noticing Golden Feather / Faust as well as Arceus. “And who you might be?” He asked, looking at Arceus with more interest.
To Discord surprise, Golden Feather / Faust spoke first. “Well, I’m the writer of a small travel column, not much else.” Her tone was a bit nervous, she knew that if anyone could discover her real identity was Discord, even if it would probably be by accident.
Arceus noticed that Golden Feather / Faust was nervous talking to Discord, and decided to intervene. “She offered to take my family on a tour across Equestria, oh and by the way, I’m Arceus, nice to meet you.”
Before Discord could say a thing, Cadence called him by his name again, her tone more severe than before, yet still remaining calm.
“Can’t you see we are talking here?” Discord asked, although rather than sounding annoyed, he appeared to be nervous, not even turning to see her.
“Mmhmm,’”Cadence answered with a sarcastic tone, staring at the back of the draconicus.
Discord just rolled his eyes at Cadence’s answer. “What?” He asked in exasperation, and still not turning to look at her.
“You know what.” Cadence answered, returning to her collected yet severe tone.
“I already told you, I’m here because I wanted to say hi to Celestia, Miss Silver and Arkeuz here.” Discord answer, finally turning to see Cadence, while awkwardly trying to find a place between the solar princess and the alpha pokemon.
“It’s Golden Feather and Arceus.” Celestia corrected, getting an annoyed look from Discord.
Cadence just stared at him, shaking her head. “Why aren’t you with Fluttershy, meeting her parents like you said you would!?” Cadence finally asked, done with the draconicus nonsense and choosing a less subtle approach.
Discord bited his lip, “W-well… eh-” He babbled for a second, trying to think of an excuse.
“Discorld, I told you that it will be fine, Fluttershy’s parents mig-HMM!” Before Cadence could finish, Discord snapped his fingers, making a handful of cookies appear into Cadence’s mouth, taking her by surprise, and most importantly for the draconicus, silencing her.
“Excuse me, but I was talking,” Discord said in a fake tone of indignation, pretending to have been offended by Cadence's technical interruption of his babble.
“As I was saying, I’m here because I wanted to have some fun, instead of spending the days leading to New Years with Fluttershy and her parents, who I might disturb and…” Discord stopped talking, realising that he was dangerously close to revealing his insecurities in a ramble.
“ENOUGH TALKING! LET’S HAVE SOME FUN!” Discord exclaimed, snapping his fingers multiple times.
On queue things began to change in the kitchen. The table begang to levitate; the cookies stod and rolled, getting together and forming a sort of proud-standing 2D wiggling snake; the few dishes on the table stud and began to roll around; while the cups began to spin in place, the spoons inside the cups acting like childs on a theme park ride; the tablecloth began to move around like an out of season Nightmare Night ghost costume; and the chairs all had being sitting on where replace with a baby chair for Cadence, a stone throne for Golden Feather/Faust, a sofa for Twilight and with Celestia and Arceus sharing a lying tree trunk.
Suddenly, Arceus’ ring began to shine, and with a flash of golden light, everything went back to normal. The table and everything on it returned to where it was, the chairs all changed back to their original shape; but more surprisingly, Discord found himself sitting on one of the chairs, looking at Cadence
“I apologise for interrupting your ‘fun’, but Cadence was talking with you.” Arceus said with a bit of a strict tone.
“Thank you Arceus,” Cadence said, before turning to see the confused draconicus. “Discord, if you want we can talk about this in private.”
Discord ignored her, looking at Arceus. “You know, it has been a while since I came across someone or something that could reverse the effects of my chaotic powers so easily. ” He asked, leaving his chair and flying close to the alpha pokemon.
“Well, I had a lot of practice,” Arceus admitted in a nonchalant tone. “You don't raise a bunch of toddlers capable of moving entire mountains or bending reality without having to clean a few messes.”
Cadence then cleared her throat getting the attention of both the alpha pokemon and the spirit of chaos. Arceus nodded at her, before returning his attention to Discord. “As I said, Cadence wants to finish talking with you, so could you please?”
Discord looked at Celestia and Twilight, looking for answers regarding their surprisingly powerful companion. Twilight didn’t notice as she was frantically scribbling down something; Celestia simply made a gesture with one of her hoofs indicating him to go with Cadence.
“Alright, mister boring.” Discord said, rolling her, standing off the chair and following Cadence outside the kitchen.
“Now Discord, do you remember what I told you yesterday about meeting your partner’s parents?” Cadence asked as the two made their way out the kitchen; whatever answer Discord gave, it wasn’t heard by Arceus, Celestia, Golden Feather / Faust and Twilight as Cadence closed the door behind her.
After the 2 left, Twilight turned to look at Celestia, confused regarding what Arceus had just said about his family, Celestia just nodded at her; meanwhile while Golden Feather / Faust returned her attention back to her coofie and cookies like nothing had happened.
“So Arceus, you never told me what powers your family has.” Celestia said, getting the attention of the alpha pokemon.
“I knew I was forgetting something!” Arceus exclaimed, before remembering that neither Celestia nor Luna were happy with him for not mentioning said powers before. Arceus awkwardly scratched the back of his head, “Well I did tell you that it would be more of a demonstration, so… do you want me to get Luna?”
“Yes, please.” Celestia answered, taking a sip of her tea.
“Very well, one second please,” Arceus said with a nod, leaving his chair and making his way to the door that led to the main hall.
Once he left, Twilight quickly teleported her chair right next to Celestia. “Can his family really do all that?” Twilight whisper.
“I don’t know,” Celestia answered in her normal tone of voice. “I saw him do some interesting stuff,” she added, remembering how he trespassed the security spell at the gates of the castle garden, and the Gap in Time he had created during breakfast earlier that day. “But I’m not 100% sure.”
“Well, Diancie definitely has some interesting powers, so maybe he’s not exaggerating and just telling the truth.” Twilight reason, looking at the notes she had taken while following the gem pokemon around her castle.
Twilight then turned to look at Golden Feather / Faust, who had been happily eating her cookies and coffee, unaware of what had happened. “Do you know anything about this Miss Golden?”
“Hmm? Sorry, do I know about what exactly?” Golden Feather / Faust asked, finally bothering to know what had happened since Discord left.
“About Arceus’ and his family’s powers, do you know anything about it?” Twilight exclaimed.
“Oh! Well… I did know about it, and if you ask me, you shouldn't be concerned about them.`` Golden / Faust answer in a nonchalant tone. “From what I see, Arceus is a very responsible father, and even though some of them have quite a playful personality, it seems that the same goes for his family.”
“Besides, I can undo any damage they might make.” Golden Feather / Faust thought to herself; this was her world after all, she made and she could fix any damage, or well, almost any damage.
“We are here, sister.” Luna said as she made her way into the kitchen.
Arceus then poked his head in the kitchen. “Say, is there any place where we can do a demonstration without affecting the environment?” He asked, looking at Golden Feather / Faust, almost asking for her permission.
“Well, there’s a mountain range south of her, between Equestria and the Badlands.” Golden /Faust answer, after tapping her chin for a second thinking of the right place.
“Agreed, it's so out of the way and barren that any change wouldn’t affect any living thing… if there’s anything living there.” Twilight said, showing Arceus the location of the BadLands in the same map of the continent she had scribbled on when theorising about planting new trees of harmony.
“Very well, are you four ready?” Arceus asked, turning to look behind him; whatever was standing behind him, seemed to agree as he nodded before turning back. “We are ready here.”
“Likewise,” Celestia answered with a calmed tone.
“Do you mind if I tag alone?” Golden Feather / Faust asked.
“Of course not!” Arceus answered with a joyful tone, at the same he started to shine, preparing to teleport everyone with him.